Dynamic allocation and deallocation of memory: Chapter 4, Slide 1

Memory management is a simple “accounting” of what process owns what part(s) of the memory. Memory allocation is making an entry in the “accounting book” that this segment is given to this process for keeps. Memory deallocation is an entry that this segment is not needed by this process and hence “free”. The operating system process manager usually keeps track of allocated blocks in a data structure called binary heap (in which each node is labeled by a label that is smaller than labels of all its descendants). Its purpose is to facilitate fast and efficient searching for a suitable free block. This heap is sometimes referred to as system heap or free store. Chapter 4, Slide 2

The process memory manager usually keeps a dynamic list of free segments. One of the implications is that every time your program requests more memory, the process memory manager has to search through the list to find a suitable segment; if none is found, more memory must be requested from the operating system memory manager that must search the system heap for a suitable block and when delivered to the process memory manager, a suitable segment must be carved out from the freshly allocated block. The time delay cannot be determined. Thus, if a program does a significant number of allocations and deallocations, the unpredictable delays caused by these may affect the program's performance. These issues must be considered for real-time software systems and for all programs where performance is essential. We will look at these issues when we discuss the concept of allocation from arena. Chapter 4, Slide 3

The memory manager in C programs is engaged through various interfaces (standard functions): Chapter 4, Slide 4 The size of the allocated segment is at least size, the contents are arbitrary! #include void *malloc(size_t size); #include void *calloc(size_t nelem,size_t elsize); The size of the allocated segment is at least nelem*elsize, the contents are cleared! #include void *realloc(void* ptr,size_t size);

If the reallocated segment can be extended, it is done so, otherwise a new segment is created, the contentrs of the old segment are copied to the new one, and the old segment is deallocated. Careless use of realloc() often leads to dangling pointers! extending node c: Chapter 4, Slide 5

Chapter 4, Slide 6 Extension was possible, all is fine!

Chapter 4, Slide 7 Extension was not possible, reallocation was necessayr, right child of node a is dangling!

Chapter 4, Slide 8 Deallocation: #include void free(void* ptr); End of slides for chapter 4